Creating Successful Vestries and
Committees
A look at how groups
develop and ways you
can lay the foundation
for a group to
accomplish its purpose
Copyright © 2009 CREDO Institute Inc., et al. All rights reserved.
Creating Success -- 1
What is a Group?
“A number of persons or things
regarded as forming a unit on
account of any kind of mutual or
common relation or classified
together on account of a common
degree of similarity.”
Oxford English Dictionary, 1989
Creating Success -- 2
Successful Groups Balance…
Group
maintenance
(harmony within
the group)
Individual Needs
Task (job to be done)
Creating Success -- 3
Tuckman’s Model: The Five Stages of
Group Development
Form
Storm
Norm
Adjourn
Creating Success -- 4
Perform
Form
• Task: orientation
• Concern: inclusion
• Key characteristics: tentative,
cautious, low risk-taking,
intellectualizing, play down
differences
• Steps to take: introduce members,
define and structure group, set
goals, build trust by establishing
norms and agreeing to roles and
responsibilities
Creating Success -- 5
Storm
• Task: Organization
• Concern: Control
• Key characteristics: expressed
differences, defensiveness,
hostility, low tolerance,
impatience, bickering, selfinterests
• Steps to take: enforce agreedupon norms, encourage trusting
& trustworthy behaviors
Creating Success -- 6
Norm
• Task: Communication
• Concern: Openness
• Key characteristics: patching up
conflicts, confiding in each other,
sharing problems, recognizing
differences, sense of
cohesiveness
• Steps to take: help members
“own” the group’s goals and
procedures, maintain safety to
encourage openness
Creating Success -- 7
Perform
• Task: Collaboration
• Concern: Success
• Key characteristics: mature, flexible,
high trust, candor, value differences,
full exploration of ideas
• Steps to take: Provide resources,
step in when needed to keep group
together
Creating Success -- 8
Adjourn
• Task: Letting go
• Concern: Future
• Key characteristics: sense of
accomplishment, celebration,
affection, tying up loose ends,
recognition, sense of loss
• Steps to take: help group
celebrate and mark the ending,
assist members in moving on to
other groups
Creating Success -- 9
One More Thing. . .
Every time someone new enters a
group or a member leaves, the group
changes. In effect it becomes a new
group -- the development cycle starts
all over again.
Creating Success -- 10
Needs of the Individual
•
•
•
•
•
Checking out
Checking in
Eliciting feedback
Addressing concerns
Situational or personal
causes
Creating Success -- 11
It’s All a Matter of Balance
Group
maintenance
(harmony within
the group)
Individual Needs
Task (job to be done)
Creating Success -- 12
Resources
• Johnson, David W. and Johnson, Frank P. Joining Together: Group Theory
and Group Skills, 10th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
Inc., 2009: the classic book on group theory, frequently up-dated.
• www.community4me.com: look under “Resources” to find articles and teambuilding exercises
• www.infed.org/groupwork/what_is_a_group.htm: a good summary of group
theory
• www.managementhelp.org/groups/dynamics-theory.htm: a free on-line
library for managers on all kinds of management theory, including about
groups.
Creating Success -- 13